---
title: "tesswork"
description: "A one-bit icon library built from Lucide."
content_type: "project"
canonical_url: "https://mantasvaitukaitis.com/projects/tesswork"
markdown_url: "https://mantasvaitukaitis.com/projects/tesswork.md"
updated_at: "2026-08-31T12:06:26Z"
language: "en"
---

# tesswork

> A one-bit icon library built from Lucide.

- Live project: [https://tesswork.com](https://tesswork.com)

## Project details

- Year: 2026

- Type: Web

- Status: shipped

- Role: Design engineering

- Technologies: React, TypeScript, Vercel, OpenAI, Anthropic, Vite

## About

Tesswork is Lucide's whole icon set redrawn at one bit. Each icon becomes a 24×24 lattice where a cell is either lit or not, so what gets stored is cells instead of a drawing. Every icon keeps the name Lucide gave it and lives at its own URL.

I grew up in the 90s, when a screen showed you its constraints. I wanted that texture back: hard edges, visible cells, nothing smoothed over. So I took a set that already existed and let one rule redraw all of it.

Every icon is drawn at 24 times its size, and each cell takes the ink that lands in it. More than half covered, the cell lights. Some icons would look better with a nudge. But fixing them one by one means maintaining special cases instead of one rule.

## Outcome

Each icon is a small JSON file that draws itself at any size or colour. An agent can fetch one and change how it looks or moves.